Monday, May 12, 2014

Steps to format your book for #Smashwords and get it past that #@!$# Meatgringer!!

These steps were used successfully by me for the whole Vegas Series of 6 books just recently. It's a tried and true method - and once you've given it a chance, you'll see that it works!!

-Take the latest edited version of your
manuscript and make a working copy. I put mine in Times Roman Font #14 as I can
tell which copy it is just by looking at the large font.

-Take another copy and call it Smashwords
and then copy and paste it on Microsoft Notepad to take out any formatting.
Again copy and paste it from the notepad back to a word doc this time setting
your page in advance. Use - Times Roman font #12. Set your indents and spacing
(see Paragraphs on home page) Under alignment - click left, Under indentation –
special, click first line – by put at whatever you prefer (mine is at 1.27cm)
Make sure the Left and Right boxes show zero. Under spacing – put before and
after at zero and the line spacing at single. Click the box – Don’t add space
between paragraphs and this is what you will want your formatting to be at all
times – UNLESS – you need to center a page. (see lower)

-Once you’ve copied and pasted the file
into this new word file, this will be your final copy.

-Now, go back to the larger print copy
and highlight every place where you put italics. When you transfer your work
from notepad, every bit of formatting is erased. It also moves your *** to the
left rather than in the center which is where we want them.

-Using the large print copy as your
guide, on your Smashwords copy find and italicise where necessary.

-Next go in using the find and replace
option to find the *** and center them using this option.

-Make sure you put in the backwards P (see
top right in box above) so you can see the line breaks and then go to the end
of each Chapter and Insert a line break (Go to top toolbar and see the Insert
page and Line Breaks) and set up the chapter headings to be the same throughout
the manuscript.

-Then go and add in all the front and
back matter, (don’t forget to add in the “Smashwords Edition” line on the copyright
page and take out any link or mention of Amazon or any other publisher. Check
your back matter and links to your other books if live.

-Make sure to format those pages that are
centered with the paragraphs option rather than the lines one. See the larger
box above – where I have it at “Left” you can click the downward arrow and it
will give the center option. Use that option to center anything in your back or
front matter such as copyright, table of contents, Afterword, Other works, etc.
*Remember to always check and make
sure the numbers on the left all stay on zero.

-Type the Table of Contents list. (Smashwords
wants the TOC as part of the front matter right after the Title page) You want
the reader to be able to travel to each section with one click.